Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated as the weakest Sword God

Early the next morning, we gathered all our things and left the cabin, the sun hadn't risen and the forest was dark and quiet.

"Well then, follow me" Triss said

She led our group as we made our way deeper into the forest, without her alone as a guide, it was hard to tell which direction we were going, but the ground sloped upwards in front of us, so we were probably heading towards the mountains, we moved silently, without any unnecessary chatter.

The forest was dense here, and seemed to go on forever, but then we made our way through one last patch of thick undergrowth.

"ooh"

...and we found ourselves looking out over a sizable lake, with the forest suddenly behind us.

"This wasn't even on our map" I muttered

"Yeah, it's placed so you can't see it from a distance, and this is all our territory, so you won't see it on any map" Triss said

"Hmm..." I muttered

We proceeded to follow the curve of the lake to the cliff on the other side, at first glance, it looked like a steep, almost featureless wall of rock right at the edge of the water, however, a single tombstone lay on the ground.

When Triss performed some sort of spell in front of her, part of the cliff melted away and a cave appeared before our eyes.

"Over here, it's easy to slip and fall here, so be careful" she said.

She led the way again, heading into the lake, which continued towards the cave in the cliff, apparently, the water was very shallow here, only reaching her knees.

"Gino, I think it's best to form a line" Sylphiette said

"Alright" I replied

With me at the head of our group, we formed a single file and carefully led our horses into the water, it was surprisingly cold given the time of year, but to me it was nothing.

But luckily, the cave led up from the entrance, so we were out of the water in no time.

"Very well then, follow me and try not to fall too far behind, you don't want to get lost here, trust me" she said, with a torch in one hand, she confidently entered the shadowy cavern.

I looked behind me to make sure the others were following, I made eye contact with Princess Ariel, who was looking at her soaked pants with concern.

"Let's wait until later for them to dry, your highness" Sylphiette said.

"Oh yes, of course" she replied with a smile.

...

It hadn't been obvious at the entrance, but the cavern floor was neatly tiled, apparently this tunnel was man-made.

"It gets very twisty and complicated from here on, so stay close, stay alert too, there aren't many monsters around here, but sometimes they come in from the deeper tunnels... oh, and don't wander off if you see a light in the distance, we're in Red Wyrm territory now" Triss explained.

At this point, the tunnel had a high ceiling and was lethally wide, but just as Triss said, it curved constantly and there were frequent side passages and branches along the way, it felt like we were moving through part of a giant man-made labyrinth.

"This place is really amazing Rudy, it's not some kind of labyrinth is it?" Sylphiette muttered under her breath.

"Hmm, yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not," he muttered.

"How do you think they made such huge tunnels through the mountains?" she asked.

I frowned and focused elsewhere, but there was only Triss in front of me and I didn't feel comfortable talking to her after what happened last night, so I just stayed quiet.

Ariel, Luke and the assistants followed us at a decent distance, our formation felt a little loose... we had probably spread out too much, there didn't seem to be many monsters lurking on this path, but the last thing we needed was for the princess to get lost

...

We had been walking through the tunnels for quite a while, it was difficult to say how long exactly, when the sun is not visible, the perception of time changes, also moving through dark and unknown terrain also tends to be more tiring.

Ariel and her companions were clearly tired, I was already starting to hear some comments like: "it seems like we've been walking for days" and we were no longer moving as fast as before.

But soon after, Triss finally stopped at what seemed like a dead end, a stone tablet similar to the one we had seen at the entrance was discreetly on the ground.

When Triss activated this device, the rock wall in front of us opened up...and we blinked as the sunlight hit our faces.

And just like that, we were back outside.

Squinting as I adjusted to the sudden brightness, I looked around, from the looks of it, we had entered another forest, it was dense, but not enough to obscure the sky from view.

The position of the sun told me it was a little after noon, we had left very early that morning, so in total we had walked for about eight hours.

Triss took a few strides outside and turned to us as we blinked and squinted.

"Welcome to the Asura Kingdom" Triss announced with a playful smile.

We had crossed the border safely after all.

...

The exit Triss had guided us to was a little southeast of the royal border checkpoint, if we headed south from here we would reach the Donati region, FIttoa was to the southeast, our final destination, the royal capital was further south of Donatti.

After a long breather, we continued on, trying to get out of the forest as Triss was eager to get us going.

We had to take several breaks along the way, but we managed to get out of the forest that same day, and resumed our journey south through the Donatti region.

Naturally, we stayed off the main roads, sticking to the quieter, less traveled back roads.

To be clear, these weren't rough trails plagued by dangerous thieves or monsters.

These paths weren't on our maps, but Triss knew them like the back of her hand, so we moved towards our destination fairly steadily.

...

On our journey south, we passed through the Fittoa region.

It had been a few years since reconstruction began in earnest, fields of crops dotted its landscape here and there.

Rudeus and Sylphiette stopped, their horses side by side, to gaze at the grassy plain with its scattered fields.

Both had nostalgic expressions on their faces as they looked out at the landscape.

After about ten days of traveling, we stopped at a place called Rikket, it was a town near the southern end of the Donati region, and a center of trade with the Royal Region.

We wanted to reach the capital of Ars, without making our presence known if possible.

We had gathered information in the villages along the way, but found no clues about the movements of our pursuers.

Unfortunately, our group stood out in the crowd, Ariel still maintained her anonymity, but that didn't matter as long as she strutted around with a group of bodyguards as flashy as us.

Rikket was a choke point, just like the border fortress, it was very likely that our enemies were waiting for us here, however, to my surprise, the guards did not stop us, and there were no rows of armored soldiers along the streets inside.

Triss quickly led us to an inn that was suited for groups who wanted to stay unnoticed, it looked like a normal place from the outside, but it was actually run and staffed by people closely related to the bandit gang.

Ariel locked herself in her room at the inn while Triss went out into the streets to gather information.

The rest of us stayed at the inn to keep an eye on the princess.

I stood guard at the first floor staircase of the inn, while Sylphiette and Rudeus guarded Ariel in her room.

Ellemoi and Cleane had disguised themselves and gone out to buy supplies, Luke was hiding in Ariel's room, that made me a little nervous but I had to trust that he wouldn't suddenly lose his mind and try to stab the princess.

I yawned as I looked towards the entrance, right now I wish I had someone to talk to, now that I think about it, Nina is the closest thing I have to a childhood friend, in fact I don't have any friends ha!.

It's kind of depressing but it can't be helped.

A moment later, Triss entered the inn with sacks in both hands, she closed the door with a push, approached me and handed me one of the sacks.

"Hello... I brought some food for you" she murmured

"I appreciate it" I replied with a smile.

"Yes, am I not kind? Make sure you savor it with pleasure" she said.

There were several hard fruits, like pears, inside the sack.

"Thanks a lot Triss...and hey, I'm sorry about the cabin, I was honestly a bit stressed" I said

"Oh?...oh yeah, nevermind" she said and with a vague wave of her hand she headed for the stairs to the second floor.

The woman had only been with us for ten days, but it seemed like she had already found her place in the group.

Basically, she fell into the same category as Ellemoi and Cleane: a true believer of the fair and kind princess Ariel...she had a dirty mouth, but she seemed like a decent person.

I took out a pear, skinned it with my sword and took a bite, the thing was kind of crunchy for some reason, and its taste was more sour than sweet.

...

"Your Highness! We shouldn't discuss this in front of him!" a voice shouted from above, I quickly went up to investigate.

Sylphiette was looking towards Ariel's room with a worried expression.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Yes, Triss got information and according to her...Luke's father has betrayed us" Sylphiette said.

"I see" I answered and stayed near the room in case something happened

That same night, Ariel informed me and Rudeus, after a private conversation with Luke, which finally convinced him to open up and be completely honest with her.

In short, our suspicions were correct, Hitogami was giving her advice.

Apparently, it had only happened once so far, as we prepared for our trip, Hitogami had warned Luke to "be prepared for Rudeus' betrayal"

His claim was that he had secretly allied himself with Darius to take control of the Notos Greyrat house, in this scenario, he was motivated by a thirst for power, lust for Ariel, and simple greed.

Sylphie had no idea of ​​his intentions, everything was happening behind her back.

During the day, he pretended to be Ariel's ally, but carefully led her into the enemy's traps, and at night, he snuck out to meet with Darius' spies and tell them everything he knew.

This version of Rudeus sounded like a ridiculously thorough and intelligent guy, nothing compared to the real Rudeus.

But the best way to prove Rudeus' innocence is through actions, and Ariel also promised us that she would stop Luke from doing anything reckless in the meantime.

Hearing all that was a relief, Hitogami hadn't done anything smart here, so it wouldn't be that hard to break his hold on Luke.

By Hitogami's standards this could be considered a half-baked job, it was pretty clear that he never expected to get much out of Luke.

Still, we would never have learned any of this from Luke, it was a good thing Ariel had stepped in to handle the situation, she was much more suitable than me at that.

...

The next day we set off south from Rikket.

Luke was constantly watching Rudeus and doing everything he could to make sure he was never alone with Ariel, probably thinking he might murder Ariel and send her head to Grabel.

I didn't really care, by now, I knew what was going through Luke's head, and Ariel had him on a leash, it was one less thing to worry about, I don't know if Ariel had anticipated any of this, but I was impressed with how quickly it had lightened the load on my shoulders.

Over the course of twenty days, we slowly made our way south along the back roads and eventually arrived at Ars, the jewel in Asura's crown.

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Please give me power stones!!!